Behind Beijing's intransigence on N. Korea: Monroe Doctrine with Chinese characteristics

East-Asia-Intel.com ^ | 5/26/2010 | By Willy Lam*

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

High-level lobbying by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has failed to persuade the Chinese leadership to do anything substantial regarding Pyongyang's sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in late March.

Diplomatic sources in the Chinese capital said State Councillor Dai Bingguo privately told the American delegation — which just ended the second bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) in Beijing — that Chinese diplomats would privately urge the Kim Jong-Il regime to refrain from further provocative acts against South Korea.

But there would be no public statements from Beijing condemning Kim’s latest act of brinksmanship. At the end of the SED, Dai stuck to the line that “relevant parties should calmly and appropriately handle the issue and avoid escalation of the situation.”

As for imminent deliberations in the United Nations Security Council regarding new sanctions against the DPRK, the diplomatic sources said Beijing had expressed reservations about the usefulness of such punitive measures.

In June of last year, the Security Council passed sanctions — including a widened ban on arms exports from the DRPK, inspection of North Korean ships in international waters, and punitive financial measures — to penalize the DPRK for testing a nuclear device a month earlier. Beijing signed on to these sanctions but failed to enforce them. In fact, economic and military ties between the two semi-allies have increased substantially since last autumn.

It is understood that President Hu Jintao, who heads the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Leading Group on Foreign Affairs, has concluded after meeting "Dear Leader" Kim earlier this month that Beijing’s best strategy is to boost economic ties with the DPRK.

Hu is also convinced that given Kim’s anxiety to secure Chinese blessings for the forthcoming power transition to his third son, Kim Jong-Un, Pyongyang will not go against Chinese wishes regarding